Here goes nothing.

Anyone that knows me will know that I really love good film and TV shows. I watch them, I rewatch them, I read about them and I talk about them (too much).

As a kid I grew up with an avid love of reading. While I was beyond obsessed with Star Wars and followed the Simpsons with religious dedication, I was regularly exposed to and to an extent believed the idea that film and TV were far cheaper, trashier and lesser forms of entertainment; they 'dulled your mind'. The book was always - without question - better than the movie. While I was busy internalising this view, The Wire was providing a brilliant exposé of the interconnectedness between drugs, policing, politics and education in modern Western cities and Kevin Spacey was tapping into our rebellious daydreams against boredom and inertia in American Beauty; Seinfeld was leaving us in stitches while Kubrick was living forever through the continual rewatching of his masterpieces.

Though literature has and continues to shape both my life and the world around me, something unique has been provided to us through the medium of moving pictures. If a picture can tell a thousand words, so can every frame, every close-up and every beat in a film score. Yes, the movie can be better than the book. The book can be better than the movie. Or, they can both provide something unique through their own medium. Sure, film and TV continue to provide an avenue for meaningless trash (yes, I'm looking at you Adam Sandler), but they can provide us with a uniquely human experience; they can be used to convey a feeling or create an experience that sometimes words simply cannot.

Nobody can deny that Hollywood is becoming increasingly corporate, dominated by franchises and product placement. But there will always be screenwriters, directors, cinematographers and actors that will provide us with magical and artful escapism and there will always be people like me to give you my take on them.

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